Dethroning White Bread

White bread has been king of America's kitchens for the past several decades, but the boringly reliable sandwich staple may now face a contender. Wheat bread has outsold white for the first time ever, the Chicago Tribunereports. For today's shoppers, the magic labels increasingly boast "whole grains" and "natural":

It's part of a major turning of the tide. Packaged wheat bread recently surpassed white bread in dollar sales, according to Nielsen Co. For the 52 weeks ended July 10, wheat bread sales increased 0.6 percent to $2.6 billion, while white bread sales declined 7 percent to $2.5 billion. White bread is still ahead in volume, but the margin is shrinking. Americans bought 1.5 billion packages of white bread in the last year, a 3 percent decrease, and 1.3 billion packages of wheat bread, a 5 percent increase.